To Daddy
by UndressTheseBeautifulLies
Summary: A songfic about Bender growing up and realizing that everybody leaves, except for the ones who you want to.


**This is a song by Dolly Parton, and Idk..I didn't really like it much, but here it is.**

_Mama never seemed to miss the finer things in life - if she did, she never did say so, to Daddy._

Five year old John Bender comes home from school tired and scared - after all, he never knew what was behind that front door, be it his mother at the hands of his father, or his big sister smiling at him and dusting the mantelpiece. To his utter surprise, it was his mother smiling. "Hello, darling. How are you?"

"I'm fine, Mommy," Bender says, his forehead creasing in confusion. "Where's Dad?"

"Oh, he's out with his friends, you know,"

"At The Cave?" The Cave was the local pub five minutes and his Dad was frequently there, and when he got back it was always much worse.

"No, I don't think so," Mrs Bender says, puffing on another cigarette, sighing almost contentedly. "John, don't look at me like that."

Bender was pulled from his thoughts and pulled a funny face at his mother. "I'm not John, Mom." The youngest Bender child was named after his father - being the only boy, he was expected to follow in his Dad's footsteps. He hated it, and insisted everyone called him Bender though he got a clip around the ear from his father for it.

"_Fine, _little man," she says, shaking her head and laughing. "Come help me with dinner."

There often wasn't anything for dinner - and when there was, it was a microwave meal and a can of knock off coke. "We're having lasagna."

"From a packet?"

"No, sweetie! From scratch."

"How do you make it?"

"Well, um, you get pasta and um.."

"Mom! You don't know how to make it."

"Maybe," she says, a smile on her face. "Run to the store and pick me up some pasta sauce out of a jar then,"

Bender looks up at his Mother. "But we don't have any money."

And that's when John Bender first learned the art of stealing.

* * *

When he was seven, Bender knew he hated his father with every ounce of his being. "Mom! I'm home." And then he heard a door slam, and a chair scraping. He ran to the living room door and tugged at the handle. It didn't budge and when he rapped at the door with his scrawny fists, his mother's voice called out to him, weak and weary.

"No, sweetheart, go to your room,"

"What's wrong?" He asked, panicked. He knew just what his father was capable of and pushed against the door until his weight opened it. His face softened its glare, slacking to a softer expression as he sees his Mom curled up on the floor, bloody and broken like a china doll. His eyes widened and he ran to his mother. Bender's Mom simply shook her head, and that was the precise moment he knew he would always hate his father, no matter what.

_She didn't even seem to notice that he didn't kiss and hold her, and if she did, she never said so, to Daddy._

* * *

When he was twelve, he had a growth spurt and was a tall five nine. His dad wised up and left him alone, preferring to verbally demoralise him instead.

"Stupid, worthless, no good, goddamn, freeloading son of a bitch. Retarded, big mouth, know-it-all, asshole, jerk!"

And the worst part? By the time he was fifteen, his mother joined in. "You forgot ugly, lazy, and disrespectful."

* * *

By the time he was seventeen, his Mother seemed withdrawn and quiet, forever sighing and blinking slowly, not even noticing her children. Bender missed his mother so badly - but how could he say so, without sounding like a baby? His Mother no longer cared for him, either, so what was the difference?

Life went on, and nothing changed.

Except one day, Bender awoke and his Mom wasn't there. In her place, lay a note, crisp and freshly written. He warily glanced at his older sister as his Father mumbled the words as he read, a fat finger running along the lines, beer stinking breath clogging the air.

_"Our kids are old enough and they don't need me very much so I've gone in search for love I've needed so badly. I have needed you for so long but I just can't keep holding on." _

While Bender's expression did not change, his heart withered and fluttered away in his chest, and it pounded though it ached.

His mom was gone.

_She never meant to come home, and if she did..she never did say so, to Daddy._


End file.
